Improvement in fire-froof granary



G. H. JOHNSON.

Grain Bin.

Paten/ted March 9. 1869.

new .s

N. PETERS. Pholuihunphu. wmhingwn, D. C4

subject-matter of the present application'.

GEORGE H. JOHNSON, OE BUFFALO, NEW YORK, AssIeNOn TOHIM- SELF GEORGEMI'LSM, OF SAME PLACE. Letters Patent No.l 87,679, dated March 9, 18,69.

mnovnivmnr IN FIRE-PROOF GRANARY.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and :making of ihe sameTo all it ma/y concern:

Be it known-that I, GEORGE H; JOHNSON, of Buffalo, inthe county of Erie,land State of New York, have in'- vented a new and useful Improvement inthe Arran ge# ment, Combination, and Construction of the fOompart# mentsof .a FirefProof Elevator 4Grain-Warehouse;4

and l do hereby declare the following to be a full and exactdescriptionthereof, reference being had t'o the accompanying drawing, forminga partof Vthis speification, in which 'a sectional planv view of my improvedgranary is given. l v

' Within 'comparatively few .-years past, thenecessity for largegrain-warehouses at the principal commercial centres of the country, tostore under, one-roof hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, has ledtothe construction, in Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, NewYork, and otherleading cities of the continent, of immense grana1ies, wherein grain ishandled wholly by machinery, and which are 'technically known as ,elevaf1301s., I I

These elevators are b uilttolhold from two hundred thousand 4to onemillionbushels of grain. Interiorly, they are divided vertically into'bins .or gamers, in order that -portions of the grain maybe withdrawnindependently of the remainder; Hence, these elevator grauariesrequirenot onlyv immense strength in the walls, to resist the outward thrustand pressure of the vast bulk of grain, but the walls must also be soconstructed as to be capable of sustaining and resisting an unequaldistribution both of weight4 and direct thrust; At first these elevatorswere constructed of wood,v involving great danger of coni-lagra'tion,and the I"consequent expenditure of large sums for insurance. Y 4 c By aseries 'of imp Ont-ant inventions, I have, iupart individually, and inpart jointly with/others, gradually perfected the construction ofabsolutely re-prooffand vermin-proof granaries, wherein grain maybestored .with erfectsafety, be'readily handled, by machinery, in quntitiesllwhic'h, in any given time,are fabulous, as compared with theold methods, and -be 'sweetened andrenovated, when damp or musty, so asto prevent all loss'from heating, rot, or decaygu The principle adoptedin my last and most perfect previous to the invention hereinafterdescribed, was that of buildingl'closely, side by side, tall cylindersof masonry,'by preference Aof brick-,Cof uniform diameters land largedimensions, each capable of holding hundreds of bushels of grain; Y'. y.

This manner of constructing my improved-repronfI 4gran-aries,althonghavast improvement-upon the old forms, involves an. immense.expense, and the necessity of reducing this expense has led to tbeinvention of the improved form of -granaries or elevators, which is theThe nature of my invention consists 1n dividing the `interior or innerspace of a granary or elevatorware house, enclosed exterior-ly by rowsof large cylinders,

of uniform diameter, builtin close Contact, by means of transverseintersecting rows of similar cylinders, so as to leave 4intermediatepolygonal bins, or compartments, (as illustrated inv the drawing,) whichshall in` clude all the space not occupied by the cylindersyand whichshall have arched sides formed by their walls. I'thus obtain, as'Ibelieve, a maximum of strength to resist the pressure of grain upon thewalls of the structure, with the largest possible amount ofv space forthe' storage ofthe grain., Y

By. making the walls of the` structure hollow throughout, and converting'the hollow spaces within the walls into Ventilating cold or hot-airdues, the grain in all the compartments may be thoroughly ventilated,the inwardly-projecting arched sides of the intermed'ate polygonalcompartments presenting, in proportion, nearly as much absorbing,Ventilating wall-surface to the grain therein as in the smaller circulargrain-spaces within the cylinders. -l l I form the outer walls of mygranary,'as usual, of a series of cylinders, A,.of equal diameters',built in contact, side vby side, including always, however, an oddnumber `of cylinders (as three, five, seven, ,&c.,)' `between theYcylinders at and constituting the corners of the structure. l l r In4combination with said outer cylinders, parallel thereto, and within thespace enclosed thereby, I erect, in contact, a row oi cylindersLA', ofthesame diameter, extending from every alternatecylinder in the Vbutertier, across the inner space, so as tof intersect therein.

Thus, within said interior spacte of the structure, the" space B,"Aincluded between any ur of the cylindrical bins in contact, is leftvacent, and these 'spacesv B are f'tted' forthe storage of grain, incommon with the .cylinders themselves. J

. l 1 Itis evident that each space or compartment Bfthus providedV inthe granary, will contain four tim e s the amountjof grain which canbeplaced in any one cylinder A, whilst Athe amountof wall-surface throughwhich ventilation may be secured, is increasedin t e' s'ame propoitiori.vAtA the same time, the outwa d pressure, from the grain containedtherein,- 4isbrought to bear upon the crown` of the series of .archesVformed by the cylinders constituting 'its walls, so that thesecompartments willsustain far more pressure fromwithin than can be safelybrought to bear upon 'the simple cylinders. It is also evident that,when full,l they will strengthenand support the 4adjacent cylinders.

Having thus fully described my invention;

I claim as new, nd desire to secure by Letters A The/foregoingspecification 'of my improvement inv the combination and arrangement ofthe compartments of a ireproof granary, signed by me, this '14th day ofJanuary, '1869.' l v v GEO. H. JOHNSON.

.Witnessesz y Dsvrn A. BURR, v

HENRY M. GAYpLonp.

enclosed byva row of louter. cylinders, or,"

